Cleared for Takeoff

It's a Monday, so here I am, back at the hospital. My platelets rebounded from last week's low and are well over 100,000, well over the threshold for chemo, so I have been cleared for takeoff!

The routine this morning was just that -- very routine. Lab work at 9:30, doctor at 10:20 and treatment center at 11:30. The doctor, as always, was delightful and willing to answer my every question. She did point out that my hemoglobin is quite low and I'm likely to need a blood transfusion next week. In the meantime lots of red meat and spinach for me, and perhaps some chicken liver too. She also called me a model patient because I'm coping so well with the chemo! I have always aimed to please!

I'm hooked up and underway. I'm getting a benadryl drip as I type this, so I expect to fade off shortly. More later, perhaps!

3:15 p.m.

Awake again, albeit a bit groggy, after the Benadryl/Lorazepam induced sleep.  Each nurse does things a little differently and I received my Bendaryl first, to be followed by two bags of anti-nausea meds.  They weren't going to give me the Lorazepam until after that, but my legs were already bouncing around in reaction to the Benadryl, making sleep impossible, so I asked them to give me the lorazepam next.  My legs quickly settled and I fell into a much more peaceful sleep for an hour or hour and half.  During that time, I apparently went through all my pre-medications and was put on the first of the chemo drugs.  Now I'm partway through my second drug, Taxotere, and will end with a chase of Herceptin. 

The taxotere is what causes me some side effects I'd rather do without: very teary eyes, especially for the first couple of hours in the morning; skin rashes, leading to toughening skin and eventual peeling, particularly on my hands, constipation and then, possibly diarrhea.  My tongue loses its coating and then foods taste really blah for a week or so, and the newest one is muscle aches, particularly in the thighs.  Fortunately, the taste buds have come back each time, so by the 3rd week, I have gone back to enjoying food.

Ah, the home stretch.  We finished drug #2 and are on the final one of the day, Herceptin.  Herceptin takes a half hour or so to be infused, so I may actually be gone by close to 4:00.  With enough Benadryl/Lorazepam in my system, I anticipate a nice stretch out on the couch once I get there and perhaps another short snooze.  It sounds like heaven to me!